I’m very happy to share the news that my poem Snake eats tail has been commended in the Moth Poetry Prize 2024.
The Moth Poetry Prize is one of the biggest prizes in the world for a single unpublished poem. Unsurprisingly they get thousands of entries from across the globe. It’s an incredible honour to have my poem selected by judge Fiona Benson (an amazing poet by the way!) and to be a small part of a prize that has included poets like Claudia Rankine, Nick Laird, Warsan Shire and Louise Glück as judges, and winners like Abigail Parry and Damen O’Brien.
Fiona Benson wrote a short note about each of the commended poems. Here’s what she had to say about Snake eats tail:
‘The amazingly strong vernacular voice of “Us” in “Snake Eats Tail” reminded me strongly of Les Murray’s poem ‘Pigs’ from Translations from the Natural World. It has the same magic of language. I loved the attention it pays to delivery boys sharing e-bikes, an exploited underclass earning in tiny denominations.’
Fiona Benson
Congratulation to the shortlisted poets and the other poets who were commended. There are some amazing poems from Naoise Gale, Andrew Krivák, Anthony Lawrence, Shelley Stenhouse on the shortlist, you can have a look here.
And here’s the first couple of stanzas from my poem, enjoy!
Snake eats tail
Us string bean boys wrapped in balaclavas, us lug
lost names, us blip on maps, us listen for families
crying in winter’s huff, us eyes out, us white breath,
us scrunch memories in the night. Us know escape
sounds like a spinning wheel.
There’s truth in forgetting.
Second winter delivering Thai food and pizza
to the tall tower mishmash. Us smile at the pallid,
us hide recollection’s slippery scales. Us know ratings
mean the algo keeps grinning. Us always five star, on time
always meditating on mortality outside Kings Cross KFC.
There’s forgetting the truth.
Pretty sure this is the only time I’ll sneak into the Irish Times! You can check out the announcement here!
Rico Craig 